Translations
by BlindingFirefly
Summary: Daniel and Teal'c have a rather interesting conversation -- in Goa'uld, no less -- about our favorite star crossed lovers. Sam/Jack.


Disclaimer: If I owned Stargate, Jack and Sam would both have rings on their fingers at this very moment. They do not have rings. Therefore, logically, I do not own Stargate. No suing, then, if you please!

A/N: Over the summer I've become a huge fan of Stargate: SG-1, and more importantly, a fan of the Jack/Sam ship. My gosh, isn't it frustrating how just when you think you're going to get confirmation, they dance away from you again? Anyway, this is my first Stargate fic, and I hope you guys enjoy it. I found Teal'c unusually fun to write, something I certainly did not expect. It helps that I, too, often fall into a rather Dickensian and formal manner of speaking. Please enjoy, and hit the review button! I do believe in Sam and Jack! I do! I do!

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Daniel threw down his pencil in frustration and let an impatient groan slowly out through his teeth. SG-10 had just brought back some pictures of text found on the pillars of an Incan-style temple on P5X-119 and said that a translation was urgently needed for continued relations with the natives. Daniel hated the hidden meanings behind these requests sometimes; they always seem to infer that translations were as easy a task as picking up sausage biscuits at McDonald's would be, and that if he just concentrated a little bit harder, it would all suddenly become clear with a flick of his wrist and a cheery bippity-boppity-boo. Didn't these people realize the complicated grammatical structures and vocabularies of the myriad of languages he knew? He couldn't just pull the words out of thin air. Or out of his butt, either.

Thankfully, these writings were in a dialect of the Goa'uld language that he'd already seen before, so he wasn't starting completely from scratch. That uplifted frame of mind hadn't continued into the ninth hour of his study session, and he was drawing a blank on the next fragment of text. So he decided to do what all the members of SG-1 did whenever help of this kind was needed.

He went to find Teal'c.

Teal'c was in the commissary when Daniel had finally tracked him down. The huge Jaffa was just shoveling down his twelfth pancake and looking longingly at the pile of bacon on the next plate that awaited his consumption. Daniel always had to privately remind himself that Teal'c was, after all, eating for two.

"Hey, Teal'c," Daniel said hesitantly as he shifted from one foot to the next. "You got a minute?" While Teal'c was generally the soul of consideration and generosity, he had been known to get a little…_testy_ when his meal time rituals were interrupted unnecessarily. Once a lieutenant had tried to divert Teal'c's attention away from the fascinations of the cookies and cream sundae that he'd been in the process of consuming, and not one, but _both_ of Teal'c's eyebrows had been raised in amazement at the lieutenant's audacity.

The incident was still spoken of with awe, and would no doubt go down in the annals of the great dangers of life on the base; the lieutenant was considered extremely lucky to have escaped with his life. (More than one member of the SGC was convinced that Teal'c had as yet unexplored alien mind powers, and that his eyebrows' position was the key to the continued existence of Earth, if not the universe. Heaven forbid that his eyebrows be raised and he _speak_ at the same time. A collective shudder ran through everyone at the mere thought.)

Teal'c did not answer DanielJackson immediately – that bacon simply had to go. It was an affront to his honor if he allowed it to continue to subsist. In three bites he devoured enough to feed a platoon and then downed two cups of coffee. Then he turned to the archeologist as if no time had passed at all. "I do not, DanielJackson, have one minute. In fact, I have one hundred and twenty-three minutes at my disposal before I am expected in the briefing room. Can I be of any assistance to you in the intervening time?"

"That'd be great, Teal'c." Daniel fervently thanked whatever real gods there were that Teal'c's eyebrows were remaining firmly in place. Teal'c was his friend, but that didn't keep him from being…well...alien at times. "SG-10 brought me some text that they want me to translate, and I'm having a bit of trouble conjugating some of the verbs into their correct forms. I'd really appreciate the help."

"It would be my honor to aid you in your endeavor," Teal'c said with a formal nod, as he if were offering to save the President's cat from the tree it had climbed, or perhaps invade a hostile planet. "Let us proceed."

Seating himself beside Teal'c, Daniel spread out his papers and explained his problems to the Jaffa. The men had been deeply engrossed in their work for about half an hour when Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter walked into the Commissary, no doubt on the hunt for doughnuts, bad coffee, and jello. Sam's laughter was what caught Daniel's attention, and Jack was talking loud enough for him to be able to tell that Jack was describing last night's episode of _The Simpsons _to his 2IC. "And then…get this!...Ron Howard suddenly shows up at the door!"

"No way!" Sam gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth as she tried to hide her laughter. "I bet Homer just about died!"

"He was in heaven," Jack said reverently. "So of course, he has to tell Ron all about his screenplay…"

And as he was describing an episode of that asinine show that he loved, Daniel saw Jack give Sam one of his Looks. The kind that he wasn't supposed to give her, and definitely the kind that Daniel wasn't supposed to notice. It was the kind of Look that screamed, "I love your laugh. I love it that you listen to me babble about _The Simpsons_, like I listen to your technobabble. I love your efficiency. I love that you love blue jello. I love you, Samantha Carter."

Sam's answering Look said, "I love that you aren't so hardcore that you can't appreciate simple humor. I love that you never leave a man behind. I love that you're impressed by my brain, not intimidated by it. I love that you love dogs. I love you, Jack O'Neill."

Daniel's eyes wandered over to Teal'c, who was being his most inscrutable. That didn't stop Daniel from having a brilliant idea, though. Carefully, in the Goa'uld language that usually only spoke of hatred and dominance, he said, "Do you see it, too?"

Teal'c's face was the soul of blankness. "I do not know what you mean, DanielJackson." Still, it, too, was said in Goa'uld. That gave Daniel a little hope that Teal'c would possibly cooperate.

"Come on, Teal'c, just for this minute of time and then never again, let's talk about this." Daniel suddenly realized how desperately he needed to talk about this with his team member. "You have to see that they love one another…don't you?" _Please don't say that I'm crazy…_

Teal'c was quiet for a long time, deciding. Daniel knew he was asking a lot; after all, Jack was Teal'c's best friend in the whole wide…universe. Teal'c would never do anything to jeopardize O'Neill's trust in him.

But perhaps, he, too, needed to talk about it, because he eventually said, "I have indeed noticed a strong physical and emotional bond between Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill. I was concerned at first that it would affect their performances during the course of our duties, but I have been relieved to see that it has not. In fact, it has had the opposite affect. They are always professional and passionate about their missions."

Daniel glanced over at the two in question, and saw that they were currently debating over which was better: cobbler or pie. Sam was bringing in the additional element of ice cream, a tactical maneuver that had appeared to stump Jack in the midst of his logical reasoning.

"Well, then….if they love one another, what can we do to help them?" Daniel said seriously, leaning further toward Teal'c in his fervor.

Teal'c's head leaned imperiously to the side, and deep in the heart of Africa, some children felt the earth tilt. This was blamed on evil spirits, of course, but the members of the SGC knew better. "I fail to understand your statement, DanielJackson. In what way do Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill need our assistance?"

Daniel began to gesture wildly with his hands and stutter in his excitement. "I mean, how can we help them be, you know, _together_? There must be something we could do to help them out….talk to General Hammond, maybe, or send a request to the Pentagon. Surely some sort of…uh…exception or dispensation could be made in their favor."

"I do not see any possibility of such a thing occurring no matter how much we might desire it. As I understand the situation, your Air Force has quite clear rules and regulations regarding relationships between two officers. They would not be willing to negotiate, not even for two such heroes as our friends." Daniel didn't have to be a linguist to hear the disapproval in Teal'c voice; he obviously thought that two such fine individuals as Sam and Jack were deserving of a little looking-the-other-way.

"Anything we did to help them would ultimately harm them, as they would be punished for being in breech of protocol." Teal'c leaned back in his chair, looking down at the text as if that was what they were talking about. "As I see it, nothing can be done, nothing but to try and protect them so that they never face the pain of losing the other. Such is my belief and my personal goal. If you wish, you may undertake the mission as well."

Daniel shouldn't have been surprised to discover that Teal'c had put so much thought into the situation, but nevertheless, he was. He found Teal'c's reasoning good—after all, he shuddered to think of Jack going through the pain of losing Sam, or vice versa. After all, it wasn't so long ago that he'd found himself with the love of his life. He hadn't forgotten the feeling. That didn't stop him from justified anger on Jack and Sam's behalf. "But it's infuriating! They've done so much and to be just…just tossed out into the cold like that…it's maddening, Teal'c, something should be done…"

"I quite agree," Teal'c said serenely. "But as I can see no change on the horizon, we must remain true to our friends and preserve them from shame, such as the shame that would come should their feelings be discovered."

"Yeah…yeah, I guess so…" Daniel said. He spit the words out, disgruntled that they had to be said at all. He looked over at his friends, who were so obviously enjoying one another's company. "I just want them to be happy, and they make each other happy. Love is rare, Teal'c. It shouldn't be wasted."

Teal'c did not reply. He merely nodded in agreement.

Jack and Sam, having decided that cobbler won the debate due to the heightened chance of it never having a burned crust, made their way over to Teal'c and Daniel's table. "Teal'c, Daniel," Jack said with a nod. He pointed his chin down at the papers and said, "What's all this crap?"

"It happens to be text from an Incan temple, Jack, not _crap,_" Daniel said haughtily, as he nevertheless made space for the newcomers.

"Did I hear you two talking in Goa'uld?" Sam asked, her eyes alight with interest.

"Oh, yeah?" Jack asked. It was easy to see that his interest was more fully on his cobbler than on the conversation. "What were you talking about?"

"Nothing much," Daniel replied, looking at an impassive Jaffa. "Teal'c was just helping with some translations."

"Sounds exciting," Jack said, his mouth full.

"It was indeed, O'Neill," Teal'c replied, before changing the conversation to something else.

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A/N: Hit the review button if you love Stargate! If you don't…err….Maybourne's coming to see you! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


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